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Vivienne Westwood: Ethical Fashion Africa

With photos that at a first glance make you almost shrivel up with disbelief, there is every chance that a shock-factor campaign like this could be immediately boycotted. Vivienne Westwood has decided that if inspiration for a collection is taken from somewhere, then something must be given back. After a visit to Nigeria she has now partnered with the International Trade Center and Ethical Fashion Africa to help African women become independent, skilled and entrepreneurial. With the help of Juergen Teller, Westwood is on a mission not just to raise awareness of a situation, but to combat it. “This is not charity, this is work,” she says. Watch the video here.

In 1916 Edward Johnston’s eponymous typeface was introduced by London Transport. The typeface is now one of the most famous in the world and, to mark its centenary, it has been updated for the digital age by Monotype and renamed Johnston100. Today, NikeLab and Roundel unveil a collaboration that sees Johnston100 used as inspiration for a new edition of the Nike Air Zoom Spiridon.

Mercedes-Benz has teamed up with director Ace Norton, choreographer Homer Hans Bryant and fashion designer Sandy Liang for Midnight in Stuttgart. Shot at the German city’s Mercedes-Benz Museum, the short opens with a security guard closing the showroom. After doing his rounds, the man returns to his office and falls asleep. A group of mannequins, wearing clothes by emerging (and very talented) New York designer Sandy Liang come alive as a dance troupe. They perform a Hiplet™ dance choreographed by the hip hop ballet movement’s inventor Homer Hans Bryant, founder of the Chicago Multinational Dance Centre School and former principle dancer at the first black classical ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Photographer Alice Moitié has shot fashion brand G.Kero’s latest campaign, which is set on the streets of Paris and shot in a gorgeously retro style. The French photographer was keen to mix famous locations with places not normally captured and took the model to places like the Champs-Élysées and Fête des Tuileries to play around on the carousel and chair swing ride getting “some air” into the images.

Dutch designer Iris Van Herpen presented her latest works in Paris earlier this month, in a high-concept installation exhibiting a continued flair for high-tech innovation in the creation of haute couture showpieces.

Trailblazing designer, stylist and art director Judy Blame is the subject of two concurrent exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Judy Blame: Never Again and Artistic Differences showcase a personal curation of his prolific work in fashion and music, presented alongside a selection of work by the generation of creatives with whom he has collaborated and deeply influenced.

What if, in a sort of topsy-turvy Dorian Gray-esque twist of fate, your face became your selfie? Fine if it’s a fabulous selfie, all best-sides and artful lighting, but what if it’s blurry, or plagued by red-eye? It’s a nightmarish turn of events that plays out in a hilarious new fashion film from Mercedes-Benz.